Austrac targets bet365 in investigation

The Australian financial watchdog, Austrac, has announced a new probe into Hillside (Australia New Media) Pty Limited, the company trading as bet365, which will now face close scrutiny from the regulator over a potential failure to comply with anti-money laundering laws in the country.

The investigation was announced last week and names bet365 as failing to comply with the country’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act). The investigation comes after Austrac had previously asked bet365 to appoint an external auditor.

According to the watchdog boss, Brendan Thomas, all gambling companies in Australia have a role to play in helping fight financial crime and ensure that they remain compliant with the existing regulatory framework. In a statement shared on the official website of the regulator, Thomas said:

"Corporate bookmakers must have robust systems in place to ensure they can manage and mitigate risks associated with money laundering and terrorism financing. Businesses without adequate processes in place to manage those risks leave themselves vulnerable to exploitation by criminals."

The case dates back to November 2022, when Austrac originally asked the company to appoint external auditors and the decision itself was preceded by an extensive supervisory campaign, the regulator said. Scrutiny over the gambling sector has been tightening as there are justified fears that criminals are increasingly using gambling operations to move dirty money.

According to Monash University associate professor Charles Livingstone, who spoke to the Financial Times, there was indeed a "substantial amount of (illicit) money" moved through Australian betting agencies, expertly hidden and interwoven into the billions of transactions that such businesses handle.

Livingstone said that the gambling industry was repeatedly targeted by fraudsters who wanted to exploit momentary lapses in oversight to ensure that they are able to transmit money, while avoiding detection. However, as pressure on betting companies in Australia is growing, and particularly in the fallout of the Crown Resorts case, such operations are becoming easier to track as there is newfound political willingness to fight crime on all levels.

Other monumental shifts in the country’s gambling framework come in the form of similarly ambitious moves, including a proposed blanket ban on all gambling advertisements in a bid to reduce gambling-related harm, and also tightening regulation across the board in individual states.

Australia also recently voted in favor of a ban on credit cards to be used for gambling, and the country is further experimenting with trials such as cashless gambling which should in theory make it far easier to track money flows and suspicious patterns.

Image credit: Unsplash.com